Microtomography-based CFD Analysis of Transport in Open-Cell Aluminum Metal Foams

Nowadays, the need for developing more effective heat exchange technologies and innovative materials, capable of increasing performances while keeping power consumption, size and cost at reasonable levels, is well recognized. Under this perspective, metal foams have a great potential for enhancing the thermal efficiency of heat transfer devices, while allowing for the use of smaller and lighter equipments. However, for practical applications, it is necessary to compromise between the augmented heat transfer rate and the increased pressure drop induced by the tortuous flow passages. For design purposes, the estimation of the flow permeability and the thermal conductivity of the foam is fundamental, but far from simple. From this perspective, besides classical transport models and correlations, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) at the pore scale, although challenging, is becoming a promising approach, especially if coupled with a realistic description of the foam structure. For precisely recovering the microstructure of the foams, a 3D X-ray computed microtomography (μ-CT) can be adopted. In this work, the results of μ-CT-based CFD simulations performed on different open-cell aluminum foams samples, for laminar flow regime, will be discussed. The results demonstrate that open-cell aluminum foams are effective means for enhancing heat transfer.